Allies shrivel as Umno hawks its Malayness
As it is, these allies are squabbling internally and Umno’s strategy can only mean one thing for these non-Malay component parties. Political death or a kind of limbo akin to being window-dressing or tinsel for festivities — to be trot out to underline Barisan’s multi-racial flavour.
The Malaysian Insider
Umno’s single-mindedness to retain and regain the Malay vote has come at the expense of its 13-member coalition — the Barisan Nasional, particularly in peninsular Malaysia.
The fact is, Barisan’s component parties have become so weak and irrelevant that the dominant Malay nationalist party has decided to go it alone for the community vote. Notwithstanding that Barisan chairman and prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak keeps touting his 1 Malaysia concept.
While the government has been pushing that concept far and wide, and including it as a basis for this year’s National Day parade two weeks from now, Najib’s Umno has just been focussing on the Malay heartland and vote.
That is why Umno politicians have not been afraid of insulting the sensitivities of fellow allies as can be seen from the Umno Youh’s recent ceramah where they openly spoke about pork being sold openly if their rivals Pakatan Rakyat continues to rule the states gained in Election 2008.
With its attempts to court PAS ending in failure, Umno has now gone on the offensive against PAS, castigating it for working with DAP, which has been painted as anti-Islam and the manipulator of all things anti-Malay.
Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin has asked PAS to quit Pakatan, saying its Islamist views are in danger and being ignored by the opposition pact that won 82 parliament seats and five states. Unsaid is the knowledge that Umno was behind Pakatan losing Perak when its PAS mentri besar Datuk Seri Nizar Jamaluddin’s government crumbled through desertion.
